Making Friends across the Pacific

By Jane Hansen Lassetter

When some nursing students from Brigham Young University were getting ready to go to Tonga, they thought it would be fun for children from Utah and Tonga to become friends.

So the students asked Primary children in the Oak Hills Ninth Ward in Provo, Utah, to draw pictures for children in Tonga. They also took photographs of the children.

When they got to Tonga, the nursing students helped with sharing time in the Neiafu Third Ward. They gave each child a drawing and photograph from a child in Utah. The children were excited to learn about their new friends in Utah.

The children drew pictures for the children in Utah. Some of them wrote messages about themselves and about life in Tonga. Some messages were written in English and others in Tongan. Their Primary president wrote an English translation of the Tongan messages. The nursing students took photographs of the children.

One boy wrote, “I play rugby, and Tonga is so very hot.” A girl wrote, “I love your picture. You look so beautiful. I love to sing, like you.” Another child wrote about Primary and expressed love: “My lesson today is about prophets. I love you so much!”